[Alex's POV]
Torches bobbed through the crowd like small, stubborn stars, tongues of flame unfurling into the blue that comes right before night.
The Quad had become a river of light and sound, bodies braided shoulder-to-shoulder, faces set in the same determined rhythm.
I fell in behind Valen, torch warmed against my palm. He glanced over his shoulder once, sharp as a blade, and gave me a short, hard nod that said, Stay sharp. Don't get comfortable. I returned it because we both know what he meant.
If anything comes, I'm not letting it touch him.
The further we walked, the heavier the night pressed in.
The forest rose around us, swallowing torchlight and muffling sound as chants rolled like waves, the procession was steadily weaving forward.
I laughed at my friends, couldn't help it after Yoko's jab at Valen's jawline, haha.
But then, suddenly the torches flared too bright. Heat slapped my face and just as quick, a whole row went dark.
A few people gasped while the others laughed nervously.
That was so weird.
And then I noticed Enid tensing beside Valen; her nose wrinkled.
"Rot," she said, "It smells like rot."
My grip tightened on the torch as the wood creaked at my wrist. The sound of the procession shifted, as if the whole thing was breathing, in and out.
A whisper slid through the trees.
It was low and drawn and the syllables stretched like taffy. "…Vaaaalllennn…"
I spinned around as my torch threw a wild halo of light, while my claws were half out before I knew it.
Enid freezes. "Did you hear that?"
I totally heard it. This wasn't my mind playing tricks.
I felt it, this scent in the air, and the warmth that kept on dropping... something was wrong.
I looked around and saw something, at the far edge of the graveyard, where the burnt grass met deeper shadow, someone stood there, still as a carved stone, wrapped in a cloak that eats the torchlight.
For a second it was just a dark silhouette, but the next second, it was gone, like it was never there at all.
And I knew who it was.
Einar.
But then I felt a chill crawl up, on the back of my neck. I turned, but there was nothing except darkness.
But my senses were screaming... and this feeling was never wrong...
Before I could think, I moved.
I don't know why or how, I just ran towards it... Valen could manage Einar... but this thing... I have to take care of it!
"Alex!" Valen's voice cut behind me but I didn't stop.
Other voices rose, but I didn't care.
The chants faded behind me, torches bobbing away until they were no more than sparks in the dark.
Each step hammered against the earth, my breath tearing through the silence. The forest swallowed everything, the voices, the firelight, even the warmth of the crowd.
It was just me now. Just me, the trees, and a whole lot of bad decisions.
"Nice one, Alex," I muttered, weaving between roots and rocks. "Run off into the woods during a creepy-ass ritual. fuck."
The air here was wrong. Too cold and too still.
Mist curled low, spilling between the trunks like smoke. My torch spat and hissed, flame shrinking with every breath of wind that wasn't really wind.
I slowed with my pulse pounding in my ears.
And that's when I heard it.
"…Shadow…"
One word, thin as fuck, slipping between branches, coiling around me like smoke.
I spun, claws already drawn, but Nothing. Just dark trees and my own ragged breathing.
Couldn't this happen during the day? Like, all I see is just black... everytime.
I barked out a forced laugh to seem confident, "Yeah, real clever. 'Shadow.' Haven't heard that one before, Hehe"
But the laugh didn't stick. The word cut deeper than I wanted to admit. Because that's what I was, wasn't I? His shadow. Always second. Always behind.
Wait, NO! what the fuck! this isn't how it is! This is not how I think! This isn't me! And this smell!!
I gathered myself together and covered my nose, there was something in the air fucking up my mind.
Then the presence shifted, and I ran behind it.
This must be a psychic!
The woods pressed tighter as I ran on. Branches arched overhead until the path felt like a throat closing in, swallowing me whole. The torchlight bent unnaturally, flames guttering, shrinking away like they wanted nothing to do with me.
And the whispers came again.
"…second best…"
"…useless without him…"
"just a slave"
My claws tightened until my knuckles hurt.
"Damn right I'm his shadow," I snapped into the dark.
My voice cracked, but I forced it to be steady. "Brothers watch each other's backs. You wouldn't know loyalty if it bit you."
But even as I said it, my throat was dry.
I looked around to find the source of the voice... it was really scaring me... and that was a first.
The path spat me out into a clearing, and for a second I thought I'd stepped straight into a nightmare.
Crumbling gravestones jutted like broken teeth. Fallen angels lay face-down in the dirt, wings cracked, heads gone. The ground split with old scars, black weeds pushing through.
And the shadows here… moved.
They crawled across the stones like oil, pooling together, darkening, thickening.
Then it rose.
A figure, faceless. Its body stitched from smoke and fragments of bone, edges flickering like static. Limbs too long, too sharp.
I swallowed the tightness in my throat and raised my arms. "Alright. Creepy faceless nightmare thing. Let's fuck around."
I transformed into my Eidolon form, as my senses rose.
The shadow tilted its head.
Then the voice hit me. Not from its body, but from everywhere, layered and wrong, scraping against my ears.
"You'll die for him...after all, shadows always fall first... You know, he sees only utility. Yet you let him place you as he wishes... you are so replaceable..."
Then its shape rippled, and for a moment, Valen stood before me. Whole and powerful. Then it shifted again, and I saw myself. Broken. Sprawled in the dirt, blood pooling around.
Looking at it, my gut twisted and my fist faltered, but I forced myself forward, claws slashing.
The sharp claws passed through smoke. Again and again.
"Come on!" I shouted, the edge of panic in my throat. "Fight me for real!"
Physical attacks aren't working!!
The ground buckled, and tendrils of shadow shot up, spearing around my wrist and my leg. They burned cold, searing straight through skin to bone.
My torch shattered with a hiss, exploding into sparks. For a single, blinding second the clearing burned red.
And I saw them.
Faces. Dozens. Screaming inside its body, mouths opening and closing in silent agony. Their voices crashed together into one unbearable chant,
"Shadows always fall first."
The tendrils pinch, as it filled accusations into my head like needles. Names of failures not yet lived. Voices that never spoke. Valen's voice warped into You're nothing without me.
A laugh, half-death, half-defiance, bubbles up from me. "You think I want that?" I spit. "I'm not his pet. I'm not his-"
But I couldn't complete, the word died against the shadow. It pressed in not with hands but mind fuckness.
Memories it touched warped and rot; faces I trusted become blurred sketches.
The tendrils snapped me off my feet and hurled me against a cracked headstone as white sparks burst behind my eyes.
Blood trickled warm down my temple.
I tried to push up, but my limbs were tired and trembling.
The shadow leaned in, faceless head hovering inches from mine. Its whisper slithered into my ear, soft and intimate.
"Fall, Shadow. He'll follow soon."
Then darkness crashed over me.
Valen… don't you dare come here.
When I stilled, the shadow uncoiled, unwrapping itself from my body.
A black mark burned across my skin where it had touched, faint and pulsing.
The creature dissolved, slipping back into smoke, seeping between the trees until the clearing was empty again.
I lay sprawled among gravestones, cloak torn as the blood dripped off.
From far away, faint and oblivious, the Vigil's chants carried on, rising, falling, voices chasing another figure deeper into the graveyard.
While I lay here in the dark, just a little shadow.
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